Page 79 of Cruel King

Matthias sneers at my attempt to make Theo see he shouldn’t care about this. “Yeah, a whole couple months. Not exactly a lifetime of dating bliss.”

I keep reaching for Theo’s hand, but he won’t let me touch him. All he does is sadly shake his head.

“Please, don’t let him ruin what we have,” I plead.

Finally, he says in a voice full of hurt and betrayal, “What do we have, Ava? You’ve been lying to me this whole time. What else haven’t you told me? How can I believe anything from you now?”

“Don’t say that! Please, Theo,” I beg, still reaching out for him, but he won’t even let me get close now. “We can figure this out. It’s not important. Not like everything we are together.”

He steps back from me, taking all my hope he’ll forgive me with him. “I feel like I don’t even know you right now.”

I can’t hold back the tears at hearing that, and as they stream down my cheeks, he turns to leave. “Don’t follow me. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

Devastated, I watch him walk away and then turn to face Matthias. “Why would you do that? What do you get from hurting him?”

Full of anger, he snaps, “I did him a favor. He’ll thank me someday.”

“Why do you hate us?”

“I don’t hate Theo. I hate you,” he answers with venom dripping off each word.

Wiping my tears, I ask the question I’ve wondered about since he returned to this house. “Why? What did I ever do to you to make you hate me?”

Matthias doesn’t answer immediately. I watch as he walks toward me and fear what may happen next. When he stops in front of me and stares down into my eyes, I’m not sure he won’t hit me like he just did with Theo.

Then I see hurt in his eyes. Why is that there? How could he be hurt after what he just did?

“The first chance you got, you left without even saying goodbye. I shared parts of myself with you that I’ve never shared with another living soul. That time we spent together was some of the happiest of my life. But it obviously meant nothing to you since you ran away the first chance you got.”

I’m stunned by what he’s saying. “I didn’t run away. I had to leave. My father sent me to my aunt’s house. I didn’t want to leave, Matthias. I didn’t have a choice.”

“So why didn’t you even try to call or email or anything? Nothing in five years, Ava. Not a single fucking word.”

I step back, confused. “That’s not true. I told Theo to let you know I had to leave because my father was making me. Doesn’t that count for something?”

In a low voice, he answers, “He never told me you said a word.”

That can’t be right. Theo promised me he’d give Matthias my message. Why wouldn’t he?

All the years apart from Matthias come rushing back to me. I thought about him so many times, but he’s right. I never really tried to contact him.

He takes a step closer to me and says, “I thought about you every day you were gone. I wrote you letter after letter with not a single response. I tried to run away myself, willing to take the job my father had for me in London, but it didn’t matter. You followed me there too.”

What does he mean he wrote me? I never received a single letter.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I swear I didn’t.”

“You didn’t hurt me. You cut my heart out, and then you haunted me. I can’t tell you how many times my wife asked if there was someone else. She was sure I was in love with another woman. We were doomed from the start because of you. Then when she told me she was leaving, all I could think of was now we could have another chance.”

He abruptly stops talking and looks away. I don’t know what to say to all of this. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I mattered this much to him.

“I didn’t know, Matthias.”

He snaps his head around to face me, and all I see in him is anger again. “Well, now you do, and now you’re as miserable as I’ve been for every moment you’ve been with my brother.”

With another glare, he turns on his heel and storms away, leaving me alone in the misery we now share. I don’t know if I can ever make up for what I’ve done with him, but I know I have to try with Theo. He didn’t deserve to go through this. I have to make him see we can still be happy.

His door is closed, so I knock softly and say, “Theo, please open up. Talk to me. Please, Theo. I can explain. Just give me a chance.”